Keighley rapist who tried to abduct a young girl jailed (From Keighley News)

Keighley rapist who tried to abduct a young girl jailed

8:00am Friday 22nd February 2013 in News

A rapist who also tried to abduct a ten-year-old girl as she played with friends has been jailed for eight years.

Judge David Hatton QC told Khalid Mahmood he took advantage of a vulnerable woman when he plied her with alcohol and raped her in Cliffe Castle Park in Keighley in March 2011.

Last month, a jury at Bradford Crown Court found Mahmood, 31, guilty of rape after hearing he met a woman who had lost her purse and had been trying to arrange a crisis loan. The pair had gone to a quiet area of the park and he had shared alcohol with her, before raping her.

He later called an ambulance for the woman after she stumbled as they walked away.

The attempted child abduction happened in July 2012 when Mahmood made attempts to grab a girl as she played on a scooter with her friends near her Keighley home.

Although the girl told a jury she was initially annoyed, she later became frightened.

Prosecutor Oliver Thorne said Mahmood had left, saying he would not grab the girl while her father was watching, but he returned a short time later. He put his foot on her scooter and held her by both arms. She struggled, but was unable to get away for about two minutes.

Mitigating, Kate Batty said there was no evidence Mahmood’s intentions were sexual. She added it was a “very sad day” for his family.

“This is a decent hard-working, well educated family, who are highly regarded in the local community, and it is therefore with great shame their brother, son and husband finds himself in the dock facing sentence for such serious matters,” she said.

Mrs Batty said Mahmood, who has four previous convictions for indecent assault when he was a juvenile, dishonesty, harassment and persistently soliciting a woman, was starting to realise the gravitas of his actions.

Sentencing, Judge Hatton said: “You were convicted by a jury of an offence of attempting child abduction, when you stopped a ten-year-old girl from going on her scooter, and thereafter repeated that on more than one occasion. It was only the arrival of the girl’s mother that caused you to leave the scene.”

Regarding the rape, Judge Hatton added: “You took advantage, there is no doubt, of a vulnerable woman. A woman you saw and immediately appreciated was down on her luck, and I am satisfied you saw that as an opportunity, particularly to engage in sexual conduct with her. To that end you plied her with drink until she became largely, if not totally, unconscious.”

Mahmood, of Gordon Street in Keighley, was jailed for six-and-a-half years for the rape and a consecutive 18-month sentence for the attempted child abduction.

After the hearing, DC Alison Hanson, of Airedale and North Bradford CID, said: “Mahmood’s actions underlined the threat he posed to the community, and I am pleased he has now been placed behind bars.”